Beijing’s China Open has turned sharply against the seedings, leaving Iga Swiatek as the only top-five player still in the WTA 1000 quarterfinal field. After a US Open in which the leading seeds largely held their positions through the closing rounds, the season’s penultimate WTA 1000 event has produced a far more open draw.
The top two seeds have already exited, while an unseeded Chinese contender, two major champions, experienced tour campaigners and a first-time WTA 1000 quarterfinalist fill the last eight. The four quarterfinals offer sharply contrasting tests: home-crowd endurance, a dominant head-to-head record, a serving battle and an all-Czech meeting between practice partners.
China Open quarterfinal draw
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Unseeded Zheng Qinwen will meet sixth seed Elina Svitolina.
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Elise Mertens faces top seed Iga Swiatek.
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Ekaterina Alexandrova plays Mirra Andreeva.
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Karolina Muchova takes on Nikola Bartunkova.
Zheng carries home hopes against Svitolina
Zheng, ranked No. 54, has again made a habit of extended matches. All four of her Beijing victories have gone to a deciding set, including comeback wins over No. 15 seed Anna Kalinskaya and No. 18 seed Marie Bouzkova. Her fourth-round result was a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 defeat of Alina Charaeva.
Her run follows a similarly demanding US Open, where Zheng won four straight three-set contests before losing in three sets in the quarterfinals. She is now chasing her first semifinal appearance since Queen’s Club in June 2025.
Svitolina has had a considerably lighter route. The sixth seed received an opening-round bye and, after conceding the first set against Katerina Siniakova, has won six consecutive sets. The Ukrainian last reached a semifinal in Toronto in August and is seeking a third title this season.
Although both have long-established WTA records, Zheng and Svitolina have not previously played one another. Zheng will have the Beijing crowd behind her, but Svitolina arrives with fewer hours on court.
Mertens earns another shot at Swiatek
Mertens reached the quarterfinals by surviving difficult turns in her first two matches before producing her cleanest performance against Coco Gauff. Against Katie Volynets, Mertens raced to a 6-0, 3-0 lead and had four chances to move further ahead, only to be dragged into a decider. She eventually prevailed 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 in just under three hours.
She then recovered from 2-0 down in the final set against Jelena Ostapenko. Her reward was a sixth meeting with Gauff, and the Belgian finally broke through for her first victory in that matchup, 6-3, 6-3. Mertens won 10 of her final 11 service points and sealed the result with an ace.
Swiatek was tested by Donna Vekic in her second match, overturning a 6-4, 5-2 deficit, but she controlled her next outing against Iva Jovic. The world No. 1 advanced 6-1, 6-3 and said that “everything was working.”
The history is firmly with Swiatek. She has not surrendered a set to Mertens, including a 7-6(2), 6-1 hard-court victory in Miami last year.
Alexandrova’s serve meets Andreeva’s return game
Alexandrova has already removed two seeded opponents from the Beijing draw. She came back from one set down to beat No. 11 seed Diana Shnaider, then swept past fifth seed Linda Noskova without losing serve. Against the Wimbledon champion, Alexandrova gave away only four games in a match lasting a little over an hour.
Her quarterfinal opponent Andreeva began her campaign with a wobble against Yue Yuan, dropping the first set before claiming the next 12 games in succession to complete the turnaround. Since then, she has beaten Polina Kudermetova and Daria Snigur with room to spare, defeating Snigur 6-2, 6-2.
After that win, Andreeva returned to the practice court to sharpen her returns, explaining that the session had not been her own choice. The work could be crucial against Alexandrova, who struck six aces and won 88 percent of first-serve points against Noskova.
Andreeva carries the higher ranking and stronger recent results, but Alexandrova leads their rivalry 2-0. Both earlier matches came away from hard courts: Alexandrova won on clay last year and again on grass at Bad Homburg in June. Their Beijing clash will be their first hard-court meeting.
Muchova and Bartunkova bring Prague familiarity to Beijing
Muchova and Bartunkova have taken very different but equally eventful routes into the final eight. Muchova opened with a straight-sets win over Katie Boulter, recovered from a set down against Liudmila Samsonova, then outlasted Naomi Osaka in a near three-hour contest decided by a third-set tiebreak.
She had fallen behind by a break in both the opening and deciding sets against Osaka and needed nine match points to finish the contest. Her backhand faltered late in the match, yet she continued to attack with it and struck a down-the-line winner to create the final opportunity.
Bartunkova recorded the standout upset of the tournament when she beat second seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 6-3. She avoided any immediate letdown by beating Sinja Kraus 6-0, 4-6, 6-3, earning the first WTA 1000 quarterfinal of her career.
The Czech players have never met in a tour match, despite knowing each other’s games closely. They train at the same Prague club and regularly practise together, setting up a quarterfinal likely to feature variety, touch and inventive shot-making.
